Given the opportunity, He will trim the unproductive suckers and shape the branches so each one will bask in Sonlight.

Monday, October 02, 2006

Why does God allow tragedy?

This ODB is just plain cool. I smiled as I read it, because it felt like a hug from God. His plan, of course, is perfect for each of us, as it is for His entire creation. Lots of folks forget that nothing happens without God's foreknowledge. Adam didn't surprise God when he took that fateful bite, or when he hid because of shame for it, compounding his disobedience with deception. When the Gestapo burst into the ten Boom home and carted most of the family away to their deaths, God didn't wring His hands and say, "Oh, wow! I didn't see that coming." And on September eleventh, 2001, God allowed those thousands of people to die, not because He couldn't stop it, but because thousands of years ago, a man "Did it my way," to quote Frankie's song. As a race, we're enjoying the harvest of our own sowing. No one, from Adam to I, can claim we weren't warned about the law of sowing and reaping. When "innocents" are harmed, they are simply collateral damage in the sin-war raging around them. Tragic? Of course! Wrong? No! Because the only law God must obey is to be true to Himself, though in His love and compassion, such tragedies must break His heart. That's why He sent His divine Son to bear the punishment for my sin. God's perfect justice must be, and was fulfilled in the horrible death of the only true Innocent ever born.